Hello Everyone!

 

Wow this week has been crazy. The beginning of the week was alright Tuesday was frustrating because all of our planned visits when we got there, no one was home so yeah super frustrating and then our day was cut short because of LA English, owell those classes are awesome. IT has been super hard keeping up with the advertising. Big area with lots of people who need the class. Our biggest problem is money. It costs to print and buy tape right, and it’s becoming a problem, we asked the ward if they have a missionary fund that we could be able to use a little bit of money to keep up with all the materials for the class, but they never got back. Oh and our bishop is out of town for 5 weeks to El Salvador. So Yeah isn’t that Great! Owell His counselors are awesome and are willing to do a lot for us so I think it will be alright. Wednesday was interesting. There was a missionary fireside for our ward on the 30th that we had no plan, so we needed to plan. So what went from a 30-40 min. meeting to plan what we were doing. Ended up being almost 2 hours of prime Proselyting time. Me and Elder Marin were getting very frustrated and just wanted to leave. Owell we got it planned. but the rest of the night was hard because that meeting threw everything off. That’s the one thing I didn’t expect was all the different meetings. Thursday was Interesting. We wanted to visit with *** because our 2 previous appointments got eaten up by other things out of our control. So we went over to the house and The *** family was working on Thanksgiving stuff. So we offered to help and she said that she needed a bigger table and more chairs so we called ***( a recent convert who will do anything for the missionaries) so he picked up a table and we went with *** to pick up chairs from the Church building. Then after a while we went over to the *** who were actually coming to the *** also for dinner. After that we had about an hour with no real plans because what do you do at 6 o’clock on thanksgiving night. No Investigator will meet with you. If you go to any other member’s house they are going to feed you. so we just went back to the Tobars and just chilled. I felt lazy and not very productive, but what do we do? Dinner was good. I was kind of expecting a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but nope. Pan Con Pollo (a very authentic Salvadoran dish that is super good) also tamales with lots of horchata....it was awesome. So yeah. Thursday was good. Defiantly was homesick, for my first real holiday away from home it was pretty hard. I defiantly miss you all. But just think in 23 days I’ll be calling you. or skypeing... still not for sure. I’ll keep you updated on that. I hope I can Skype and see all your faces.

So yeah Investigators. Jose the self-referral is super awesome Elder Marin met with him I went on splits Friday night so I didn’t get to see him but they set a baptismal date with him for the 29th of this month. Here’s the catch he’s moving. Which is good because the environment he’s in right now is horrible. But he said 58th.... 58th place is in our area because it’s before Slauson. 58th street however is on the other side of the Slauson in a completely different Zone. owell we were going to help him move yesterday but there was a misunderstanding and our truck we were going to use was unavailable so he’s moving Thursday. So we hope he’s still in our area. Oh Yeah So Splits. Since Elder Marin is DL we go on lots of splits.  I went to another area, on the other side of the zone. We live 5-10 mins away from the church building. They live 45+ mins away from church, yeah and I was on another person’s bike.... let’s just say it was small EVEN for me, and it was in not the best shape. It was a long ride! Then we had English class again, super good also got 2 other dates with investigators. The ZL's are smart. During the spiritual thought they just did the restoration. And also a baptismal invitation. So we have 4 dates this week that was awesome. After class I went on splits with the zone leader. Elder Haro, from Where? Sacramento California. Yeah that was cool. We visited a less active and then Marcos. but the split was cut short because of the ward fireside we were in charge of. I would like to explain what we did but it would take forever so in short it was about bringing people to Christ through missionary work. Super spiritual and even though there were only like 20 people there it was good. And after that I finally got my package. Wow I really didn’t know what to expect all I know was It was heavy and it had my name on it. Thanks for all the food! I’m super excited. You do really know my favorites.

 Well To end as this weekend has passed I just want to express my gratitude for each and everyone of you. I love you and pray for you always. I'm Thankful for This AWESOME opportunity to serve the lord in Los Angeles. I know I have a lot to learn and a lot to do better, but it really has been the best 3 months of my life. Defiantly not easy, sometimes not even very fun, But worth it every second. Though the homesickness, and the trials and the tiredness, it is still worth it and will bring great blessings. I’m thankful for the gospel. Throughout the last 2 months or so I have seen the gospel literally change a person’s life. I have seen the blessings that the atonement has given, and the love that our Heavenly Father Has giving to each and everyone of us. I know that This is the True Church on The Earth, without a shadow of a doubt I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. Make sure that throughout this Christmas season that you remember What it’s all about.  I love you all. And I’m thankful for all the love and prayers for me. 

Love

Elder Hollingshead